Uber CEO Travis Kalanick leaves Trump’s business advisory council

Amidst raging criticism from employees and Uber customers for his decision to work directly with Trump, Kalanick sent a memo to his employees informing them about his decision. “Earlier today I spoke briefly with the President about the immigration executive order and its issues for our community. I also let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council,” he said.

Kalanick also said that participation in the council “was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda,” but was “unfortunately” interpreted in that way. “There are many ways we will continue to advocate for just change on immigration but staying on the council was going to get in the way of that,” he added

Kalanick was scheduled to meet with Trump today to make his opposition to the immigration ban on seven Muslim-majority countries known. But things in the past week catapulted him into deciding to quit. His association with the administration fueled #DeleteUber campaign on social media, which resulted in Uber rival Lyft surpassing Kalanick’s app in popularity for the first time.

In addition, Disney CEO Bob Iger won’t be attending Friday’s first council meeting citing a scheduling conflict. Other council members include Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla, Mary Barra of General Motors, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase & Company, Laurence Fink of BlackRock, and Virginia Rometty of IBM.